News stories by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, page 27

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 04 (IPS) - As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 threatens a global pandemic, major stock markets around the world have suffered their worst performance since the 2008 financial crush.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 (IPS) - Meeting the President of the Republic of Korea in September 2019, President Donald J Trump bragged that the "US economy is the envy of the world". Trump reiterated such claims in his State of the Union address in early February, hailing his own policies with typical humility.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 (IPS) - In an annual ritual early in the year, most major economic organizations have released forecasts for the global economy in 2020. Incredibly, almost as a reminder of where financial power resides in this day and age, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its forecasts at the World Economic Forum's 50th annual meeting in Davos.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 11 (IPS) - Many medicines and medical tests are unaffordable to most of humanity owing to the ability of typically transnational pharmaceutical giants to abuse their monopoly powers, enforced by intellectual property laws, to set prices to maximize profits over the long-term.

KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Feb 04 (IPS) - Financialization has worsened inequality through various channels, including macroeconomic policies. For example, quantitative easing and low, if not negative interest rates have fuelled credit and asset price bubbles, while fiscal spending cuts have adversely affected those depending on government assistance.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (IPS) - One mercantilist view is that exchange rate undervaluation – e.g., via accumulation of foreign exchange reserves in China's case – is ‘industrial policy' to promote export-led growth, benefiting producers of exports while discouraging imports.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan 21 (IPS) - If well planned, coordinated and implemented, a government funded school feeding programme for all primary school children can be progressively transformative. Such a programme, involving government departments and agencies working together, can benefit schoolchildren, their families, farmers and public health, now and in the future.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan 14 (IPS) - Many argue that China's impressive growth for last four decades has been due to deliberate exchange rate undervaluation, promoting exports and discouraging imports. Last year, the Trump administration accused China of engaging in currency manipulation.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 07 (IPS) - The latest November 2019 UBS/PwC Billionaires Report counted 2,101 billionaires globally, or 589 more than five years before. Earlier, Farhad Manjoo had seriously recommended, ‘Abolish Billionaires', presenting a moral case against the super-rich as they have and get far, far more than what they might reasonably claim to deserve.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (IPS) - China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 14%. Since then, its growth rate has declined by more than half to 6.6% in 2018. The five-year moving average growth rate is at its lowest since reforms began in 1978, although annual growth briefly fell lower during 1979, the year of the Tian An Men incident.